An evening in Rajpath free of cars and hawkers

Nothing can beat the experience of walking down the historic stretch that connects Rashtrapati Bhawan to the India Gate while tucking into chocolate ice- cream.

No, the road is not going to disappear. Nor the office buildings that straddle the stretch. It is the vendors - offering ice-cream, peanuts and other snacks - who will have to make way.

The Delhi Police have launched a drive banning hawkers from the Rajpath. Parking cars on the 1.5- km stretch has also been forbidden. The idea is to allow an unobstructed view of the Rajpath with its historical buildings on either side.

While Rajpath looked cleaner on Monday, the idea of parking their cars somewhere and walking some distance to get ice- creams and peanuts did not seem to go down well with visitors.

"What is the point in parking the vehicle somewhere else and then walk for a kilometre to reach the Rajpath," said Vipul Raheja, an executive in a multinational bank. He said he and his friends have been regulars to India Gate and Rajpath but the Delhi Police's latest initiative has left them frustrated.

"After spending the day at office, we used to come here. We used to park our vehicles at Rajpath and then reach India Gate. But now there are no ice- cream or peanut vendors on Rajpath," Vipul added.

Some Delhiites, though, appreciated the move.

"If it is for the cleanliness of the historical stretch, then it is good. The city is hosting the Commonwealth Games this year and it is necessary to keep the stretch clean. In any case, we come here to relax and walking a kilometre is not a big problem," said Naresh Arora, a South Delhi resident.

Since last Thursday, the police have begun evicting hawkers selling icecream, water bottles, peanuts and balloons from the thoroughfare, besides banning parking on the road.

The eviction drive started after Delhi Police commissioner Y.S. Dadwal found hawkers crowding the India Gate area and vehicles parked on the roadside, creating problems for the free movement of traffic.

A New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) official said that licences were given to hawkers on the condition that they will sell items on the move and not station their carts anywhere on the stretch.

Hawkers are learnt to be paying up to Rs 500 every month as licence fee.

"Hawkers are not allotted any space. They are supposed to sell on the move. As regards the issue of vending, we have set up a committee headed by an additional district judge appointed by the Supreme Court to look into the issue. The committee is yet to submit its report," an NDMC spokesperson said.

Adequate arrangements would be made behind the water channels and parking space would have proper lighting and security. He also said that according to the rules, the Rajpath is meant to be hawkerfree.

"This is nothing new. This has been a no- hawker zone. We are enforcing that more strictly now," Bhagat said.

He probably hasn't seen a photograph of a young Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi, tucking into an ice-cream at India Gate in the early 1970s.

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